Two journalists killed in shooting during live newscast at Smith Mountain Lake

can we not turn this tragic thread i to a pro/antigun control pedalling back and forth concluding to nothing non sense and stay on topic.

a man left a lengthy suicide note and people are getting into another piss contest about guns, and people who loves them...

what about his complex mental state, killings that motivated him, or being mixed race and experienced discrimination from both sides and his sexual
preference played a role into it. discuss that.
make a new thread for bickering over gun laws and try to convince each other of contradicting view points in a dedicated thread.

As sheriff Bill Overton noted, someone claiming to be Vester Lee Flanagan II, aka Bryce Williams, sent a fax to a news organization about two hours
after the attack. My colleague Jon Swaine reports on the fax sent to ABC News.

The text of the 23-page fax claims the shootings were part of what the sender called a “race war”, according to the network, which said someone
claiming to be Flanagan also called them on the telephone.

The document claimed the attack was intended as revenge for the June massacre by a white supremacist of nine African Americans in a church in
Charleston, South Carolina, according to ABC.

“What sent me over the top was the church shooting,” he reportedly wrote, adding that he had paid a deposit for a gun two days after the church
shootings.

Flanagan referred by name to Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old man who has been charged with the murders of those killed during the prayer group meeting.
One section of the document was reportedly headed “Suicide Note for Friends and Family”. ABC News said it had passed the material on to the
authorities.

It will be interesting to find out how much of his manifesto is realistic. After we find out why he was fired from the TV station, we will be able to
see just how whacky he is.
I think his placing blame for the shooting on the actions of Dylan Roof is deflective. He seemed to getting revenge for being fired and the manifesto
may be a way for him to try to look like a hero to some segment of society.

The hand is that of a Black man..no doubt about that, from my perspective as a Black man. What puzzles me the most is that the video shot by the
station cameraman and the video shot by the shooter seem to be at odds with each other.

The video being live broadcast/recorded by the camera man indicates that he himself was shot first. He falls to the ground with the camera while the
reporter is still interviewing.

The video recorded by the shooter with his cellphone indicates that he shot the reporter first, and kept shooting at her while she ran away. Doesn't
look like the cameraman was shot first, as the news station video shows, and as the news reports state.

Very sad.. but very weird too. I guess we'll have to wait for the official police report of the timeline before we know for sure.

cwm

Not sure if he drops the camera because he's shot first or whether he just crouches down/drops the camera because he's startled or scared... but yeah,
when I first saw the shooters perspective I thought it was odd because like you, I'd assumed he hit the cameraman first

Very good observation my friend ! That is a mind squeezer for sure, but before i let my inner tinfoil man out, i have to ask myself would there be a
reason for this too be a conspiracy, i cant think of any ? Maybe some people in the states can. I have little knowledge of guns but it looked like he
shot blanks at the reporter, ive read comments of others thinking the same, either way its a sad moment

How dare you bring to light his racial bias that was in his manifesto. It's only racial and a hate crime when the perp is white and the victims
black. Otherwise, it's considered workplace violence by a disgruntled worker. It's not racial unless Rev. Al says it is.

He was not crazy. This is not an issue about mental health. It is not an issue of anything but hate. He hated the establishment. He felt slighted. In
his note he references his thoughts on a killing at the church. He talks about being gay. He talks about not fitting in with any race even being
messed with by black men. He was walked from his job he was so angry when fired.

So, we have a bullied,gay,racist man with anger issues. Sounds like 10's of million in the US. This is about hate...not guns.

PS...I counted at least 15 rounds fired. He made sure the two were dead....

Very good observation my friend ! That is a mind squeezer for sure, but before i let my inner tinfoil man out, i have to ask myself would there be a
reason for this too be a conspiracy, i cant think of any ? Maybe some people in the states can. I have little knowledge of guns but it looked like he
shot blanks at the reporter, ive read comments of others thinking the same, either way its a sad moment

Its possible that he missed those initial shots, but regardless, its a common misconception that guns, particularly handguns, have 'knockdown
power.' They generally don't. It can only hit with as much force as it exerts in terms of recoil on the person holding the firearm...which really
isn't that much, in the vast majority of cases.

I totally understand man im just going off by what i observed and too me it looks as if maybe none of the shots he fired, of which we can see, hit
her, maybe he chased after her then killed her because she didnt seem phased by any of them, obviously running away shocked, but none of the shots we
seen made her body react differently like a jerk, or twitch, she just turned 180 and high tailed it !

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